Still Stream Coaching

Is It Right for You?

You don’t need to know anything about Carl Jung or what “Jungian” means to work with a Jungian coach.

Top 10 Situations where Jungian Coaching can Help

You Feel Stuck

The feeling of stuck-ness often arises when a role, identity, or set of values is no longer sustaining or enlivening you. I use motivational interviewing* to help you identify thoughts, beliefs, and survival skills that may be holding you back. I use gentle questions and exercises to see your current situation with some new light. This can reveal conflicting motives within yourself. Some therapies attempt to resolve your internal conflict by changing the thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back. The Jungian approach is a bit different. We use curiosity, creativity, and your own story telling ability to move you forward in a way that doesn't betray who you are and feels natural and affirming.

You Want Spiritual Depth

You are at a pivot point in your spiritual life and need to talk to someone who is impartial but not antagonistic to spiritual matters. I've been a confirmed Anglican, a born-again evangelical, and an agnostic. I now affirm my Christian heritage with the belief that God is “bigger than we think.” I explored Buddhism and Stoicism to provide perspective for living a spirituality that is deeply my own. Whatever your background I wont try to convert you to my religious position, or try to lead you away from yours. Instead I’m passionate to help you deepening your own practices and help you find more clarity, freedom, and a better sense of what is true and real.

You don’t need to know anything about Carl Jung or what “Jungian” means to work with a Jungian coach.

Top 10 Situations where Jungian Coaching can Help

You Feel Stuck

You Want Spiritual Depth

A Still Place - where your direction becomes clear.

People Say You are Too Sensitive

Have you been told that? "Too sensitive" is often directed at people with sensory processing sensitivity, anxiety, or emotional reactivity. Maybe you need a lot of time to process what you experience, or you are extremely good at extrapolating from what your intuition is telling you, or you feel things so deeply that it seems like you are taking on the emotions of those around you. Any of these experiences can leave you feeling not enough, or too much.

You Feel Exhausted or Burned Out

These feelings are often associated with circumstances like a very full life, a demanding job, or draining family commitments. They might also be telling you about an unacknowledged depression or loss. From the Jungian perspective these feelings can hint at a deeper reality, something going on in our unconscious that is asking to be seen or heard.

You Dig Jung

Maybe like me you came across C. G. Jung and sensed something very different about his way of embracing the inner life. Maybe you even considered Jungian Analysis but the commitment to higher education and years of analysis gave you pause. A visit with a Jungian coach is a way to see if Jungian methods can produce results worth your investment of time. The Inner Journey Package based on the Soul's Wishes model is a great place to start.

You Had a Rupture in a Relationship

Something created a significant rupture like a break up or divorce. You want to better understand yourself before dating again. I was married for 23 years, then went through a divorce where I learned about attachment styles and relationship dynamics. Now, 10 years into my new thriving marriage I can affirm that doing the hard work on yourself pays off. Together we can explore your childhood, your triggers, and the habits and patterns that might be getting in your way.

Calm clarity when you feel tossed about by life

You Work for a Non-Profit

You work for a non-profit, are a non-profit manager, or executive and have realized the non-profit world isn’t quite what you thought when you started in the field. Maybe that sense of meaning or “changing the world” isn’t carrying you forward like it used to. As someone who worked in the sector for 24 years I can offer empathy, understanding, and encouragement.

You're Tired of Pathologizing

You have seen a counselor or therapist and it helped, and now you are beginning to realize that focusing on your anxiety, depression, or shortcomings and trying to think differently or be more assertive is taking all your energy. Jungian coaching isn’t a replacement for clinical support, but it can help you explore your strengths and uniqueness from a new perspective and become energized by your own inner vision.

You Feel Misunderstood

You feel misunderstood by your spouse, partner, a work colleague, or a family member and want an objective but empathetic coach to support you on a journey to an improved self-image. This might involve an examination of unconscious behavior, a deliberate shift in how you manager your personas, owning your own uniqueness, or letting go of elements of your life or career that cause you to constantly doubt yourself.

10 Your Facing a Major Transition

Changes at Work - You are a facing a work-related challenge that may include a promotion, transition, or other change and are not sure what is right for you.

Retirement – You are contemplating retirement or have recently retired and want to explore how to create meaning and purpose after you start your new chapter, be that the next chapter of your life, or the next chapter of the book you have always wanted to write.

Empty Nest – You have children leaving your home for school or to move in with a partner or room-mate and you want to explore the next steps in your own life with the change in your role. I can help you chart a path through the hard feelings to a new enthusiasm.

What does a Coaching Session Look Like?

I developed an approach based on two fundamentals: Jungian psychology and Dialogos. I call it, “Stream work” because I see streams as a great metaphor for increasing clarity, flow, and a sense of purpose. These in turn can increase your enthusiasm, courage, and contentment.

In a typical first session I will ask you questions about where you are at in your life right now and you will let me know what is working and what isn’t.

I will be sensitive to what you really want and feel deep down, and help you find out what might be getting in the way at an unconscious level.

The Dialogos component is a specific type of conversation that allows two minds working together to land on the images, symbols, and themes that your unconscious is giving you to work with, and then engaging our rationality to make sense of it.

Your homework will be to notice images and patterns in your life that you might have noticed previously, but not taken to the next level of understanding. It often helps to record your dreams**, track coincidences that are important to you, and listen for key words or messages that keep coming from your loved ones, work mates, and your inner parts.

Follow-up sessions explore the themes that emerge, and will employ different exercises and techniques to take the conversation deeper, but always at a pace that feels right to you.

As a Coach I Can’t Do any of the Following

Provide a diagnosis of a mental illness.
Provide coaching when a mental illness is complex or untreated.
Provide coaching when a clinician recommends against it.
Provide coaching during a time of active substance use (addiction).
Create a treatment plan or supervise treatment.
Provide clinical counseling or treatment advice.

In addition, I do not coach anyone with a history of violence, or anyone who’s needs are beyond my training. Clinicians can contact me to discuss how I can assist in an overall care plan.

How to set up a Free Consultation

You can set up a free 15 min telephone call or video conference with me about your current situation and goals. During that call you can ask questions about the process and decide if it is right for you.

See the Fees and Services page for more information or book a 15 minute Q&A session at: https://cal.com/stillstream

You can also go old school and email me at richard@stillstream.ca

* Motivational Interviewing - a technique that rests on the idea that ambivalence — feeling two ways about change — is normal, not a problem to fix. Rather than persuading you to change, I get curious about your deepest values and desires, reflect back what I hear, and let you articulate your own case for why (or why not) to change. The core stance is partnership over authority, evocation over persuasion, and respect for your autonomy over whatever I might think is right for you.

**A note about dreams - I encourage recording and sharing dreams because of how well they convey meaning from the unconscious. Freud called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious” and Jung said: “Dreams are the impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth.” As such they can be a trusted source of guidance when facing difficult people and situations.

You Work for a Non-Profit

You're Tired of Pathologizing